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When I told my next door neighbor in May of 2008 that I was going to sell the house along with all of my personal possessions and move to Chiclayo Peru with my Peruvian wife, his response was..” That’s a path not many men walk.” I had that impression as well, but have since learned that many men and women have walked and continue to walk that path. There is a large expatriate community in Lima and a significant number of gringos scattered about the remainder of the country from the larger coastal cities to the smallest jungle villages. Many of them have personal blogs in which they offer travel advice, news, and a wealth of other information along with their individual experiences. The purpose of this blog is not so far reaching. My intent is simply to record my experiences and observations for family, friends and anyone else who may be interested, but mostly for myself. Peru is to me a musical, magical land and I’ve found that writing about it helps me to preserve the beauty I experience as I explore this enchanting country. Anyway, thanks for visiting my site. Feel free to come back again, and leave a comment if you’d care to or send an email to me at kaetan1@gmail.com.

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Thursday, November 27, 2014

During a visit to Tarapoto in 2011 we rode
in a moto taxi to an isolated jungle clearing to see petroglyphs. The site had
the look of an attraction…if it can be called that, that hadn’t been visited or
cared for in tears. The jungle is in the process of reclaiming it. The site is
located at the end of a dead-end road, and as we got out of the moto taxi I
noticed a man who had been sitting at the side of the road get up, and with the
help of a young boy the man placed a tree trunk across the road.

It took only 10 minutes to view the petroglyphs
and as we got into the mototaxi to leave I saw the man again stand up, but this
time with an ancient shotgun in his hands. The moto taxi driver stopped at the
tree trunk barrier. She said and did nothing but stare straight ahead…it was
obvious she’d seen this situation before. After a minute or so the man motioned
with his gun toward a pail the boy held. At that moment I actually had a
flashback to the movie ‘Deliverance’. This was raw humanity in a jungle,
stripped bare of all societal norms. My stubborn side didn’t want to give this
guy a penny under these conditions, but I had Maribel and her father with me
and couldn’t gauge what the shotgun toter would do if I refused so I put some
money in the pail…I don’t remember how much. The man and boy removed the
barrier and we returned to Tarapoto.

The following year on the outskirts of Jaèn
in route to Zapotal we were stopped at a police checkpoint for a routine look
at our identification documents. Having satisfied the police we resumed our
travel, only to be stopped 100 years further by a large band of young men dressed
in black military clothing from boots to beret. They were carrying military
assault rifles. Maybe it was because of a gringo in the car that they waved us
through. All other drivers handed money to the men before being allowed to
continue. This was in full view of the police checkpoint.

In Peru, the man and boy in Tarapoto and
the quasi-military group in Jaèn are known as ‘ronderos’ – a sort of community
vigilante force supposedly existing to provide protection to the public where
the national police can’t or won’t do it. I would choose a different word to
describe them – I think extortionist would be a good fit for what they do. How
the activities of the ronderos described above is protecting the public is
beyond me. And yet Maribel’s relatives living in Jaèn support them, saying that
crime would be even worse without them.

An article
appeared on the internet today dealing with the activities of ronderos in
the city of Cajamarca. It is well worth reading in that it deals with the murkiness
of these groups.

Incidentally, unless I’m reading it wrong
there is an inconsistency in the article. One part of the article reads, “Esperanza
Leon, the local chief prosecutor, said the rondas, which are illegal, are trying to create a parallel justice system”,
while further down the page it says they, “won
legal status in the 1993 constitution...” If anybody can clear that up for
me I’d appreciate it.

Corruption in Peru is rampant. Organized gang theft
and petty street theft is rampant. Both are imbedded in the culture. I am
firmly convinced that crime in Peru is in an extreme condition and that extreme
measures to combat it are called for. I see nothing wrong with corporal
punishment including broken bones, and branding the foreheads of criminals with
a T for thief. Nothing short of that will bring about change. If ronderos can help with that - and some of the videos the guy from Cajamarca has posted looks like he's on the right track, then I’m all
for their existence. On the other hand if their main activity is extortion,
they’re part of the problem. Get the branding iron ready.

Monday, November 24, 2014

….and would like to tell you about it, but
first an update on our hoped-for chocolatada in San Bernardino in December. We’re
very close to being able to sponsor a full-blown food, candy, clown and toys
chocolatada for both pronoeis in that
village. Neither pronoei has the space for a joint chocolatada but the primary
school located there has plenty of room and has all but promised to let us use
it. We’ll hear for certain some day this week. Our target date is Saturday
December 20. We’re only a few donations away from providing those 48 kids with
a day they will remember for a long time. We need to start shopping for toys
now, before prices go up. If you can help us please visit
the Promesa
Peru webpage. Thank you. Okay…on to the trip to the USA.

We began with a few days in Miami where we
spent quality time with Dino and Sara Luisa; friends we hadn’t seen in four
years. When not with them we visited beaches and just generally looked around. From
Miami we drove ‘alligator alley’ to Ft. Meyers and then Interstate 75 to
Clearwater Beach. I was last there 35 years ago when a friend and I drove our
motorcycles from Wisconsin to visit. I was looking forward to showing the Adams
Mark hotel to Maribel, with its tiki shack on the beach where my friend and I
had consumed vast quantities of Piña Coladas. That didn’t happen because Adams Mark isn’t
there anymore. In its place is a construction project. We enjoyed 3 days of relaxation;
walking the beaches, taking photos of the sunset from Pier 60, eating at the
many fine restaurants, and doing other touristy things like cruising on the
gulf looking for dolphins (there are 5 or 6 tour operators - we chose the Sea Screamer).

From Clearwater Beach we drove to Cocoa
Beach, mostly for the purpose of being near to the Kennedy Space Center. Cocoa
Beach is completely different from Clearwater Beach in that it is not tourist
oriented at all. There’s not much happening at the Cocoa Beach pier, and nothing
to see when walking the beach. Merritt Island provides a lot of shopping
opportunities and we did take advantage of that.

We spent an entire day – from 9:00am to
5:00pm at the Kennedy Space Center and could have used more time. There is so
much to see and do if you’re interested in the history and workings of the
space program. For us the highlight was viewing the Atlantis space shuttle. The
shuttle, rockets, spacesuits etc are so much more impressive in person than in
photos.

We finished our Florida adventure in Miami
with two days of marathon shopping at the Westland, Dadeland and Dolphin Malls. We had
sunshine every single day. The Lima to Miami and return flights on LAN airline
is about 5 ½ hours… a little lengthy for me so as an experiment we chose to
stop in Bogota Columbia on the return trip. That broke up the flight into two 3
hour segments, which was good, but the 7 hour layover plus being limited to the
‘international connection’ section of the airport was too long. We won’t do
that again.

It always feels good to get back to Chiclayo. With
our internal travels in Peru and occasional trips to the USA we’ve got the best
of both worlds.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

…..and it ain’t perfume. It’s been about
two weeks since trash has been collected in Chiclayo. The problem as I understand
it goes back to the arrest of the ex mayor and other city officials. There is no
one authorized to sign checks (meaning a signature officially on record at the
banks) for the trash collectors to get paid. At least that’s the story from the
trash collectors. City residents have a different explanation. They say that the
former mayor and his cohorts have taken all the money so there are no funds to
pay the workers.

Whatever the truth, residents have taken to
depositing trash in the middle of intersections in an attempt to force the city
to take action. The Agency for Assessment and Environmental Control (OEFA) in Lima has
apparently been in contact with Chiclayo officials urging them to get the issue
resolved before it becomes a health hazard. It may not have reached that stage
yet, but walking the streets these last few days is certainly a hazard to the
nostrils.